Establishing the map coordinates of a point of interest observed by an observer in the field traditionally involves a relatively crude approach. One such approach is triangulation which involves establishing two, or ideally three overlapping views from known positions at various angles to establish distance vectors that can be used to approximate the map coordinates at a point of interest, based on the point of intersect of the distance vectors. The result can be manually translated to map or grid coordinates or preferably, latitude and longitude values which can be represented on a geo-coded electronic topographic map. An alternative approach may involve use of an Osborne Device to find a directional bearing and pitch/tilt to the point of interest e.g. smoke indicating the approximate location of a fire.
These conventional approaches are time consuming, resource intensive and provide only rudimentary accuracy. Some authorities suggest that typical expectations for accuracy using triangulation techniques are in the order of approx +/−300 meters and require up to 20 minutes or longer to establish coordinates in ideal conditions, i.e. excellent visibility and using at least three overlapping views for the triangulation approach.
Accordingly it would be desirable to provide an improved method for approximating the position of a point of interest relative to a three dimensional coordinate system which ameliorates at least one of the problems associated with prior art approaches.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification together with its drawings.